Rogue of Gor

32. My Plan is Successful; I Take My Leave from the Holding of Policrates

"Let them be whipped," said Kliomenes, "both of them." Kliomenes reclined in the curule chair of Policrates, holding his court.

Mira and Tula, the blood sisters from Cos, kneeling naked before the chair of Kliomenes, their hands bound behind their back, their necks joined by a length of binding fiber, cried out with misery. They had failed in sufficiently pleasing Jandar, one of the minor captains in the holding of Policrates. Each in the opinion of Jandar, had not tried hard enought to outdo the other in addressing themselves to his pleasure. Perhaps the fact that they were sisters had to some extent inhibited them, each fearing to appear the most lascivious slave before the other. Yet, of course, such inhibitions, under any circumstances, are not permitted to slave girls. They would get over them, or die. Too, I suspected that Jandar had not handled them well. If he would have handled them with adequate skills, I had little doubt that each, indeed would have striven desperately to outdo the other, each trying to be the favorite. Properly handled, he would have had them in moments at one another's throats as competitive love slaves.

"Should this complaint be brought again to my attenion," said Kliomanes to the girls, "I shall have you cast naked into the jaws of tharlarion."

"Yes, Master!" said Mira. "Yes, Master!" said Tala.

"Take them away, " said Kliomenes. The two girls, by the binding fiber which tied them together by the neck, were pulled, half choking to their feet, and dragged from his presense.

"Why have I been brought here, Captain?" I asked the pirate at my side, who had conducted me to the tiles of the hall. It was he who was commonly in charge of the workers at the windlass.

"Kliomenes is holding court," he grinned. "But I have done nothing," I said as though frightened. "We shall let Kliomenes be the judge of that," he said. "Please no, Captain," I said. "Be silent," he said, grinning.

"Yes Captain," I said. the collar and chain which had fastened me to the windlass pole had been removed from my neck, but I wore still on my wrists and ankles, the other chains from the room of the windlass.

"What is next?" inquired Kliomenes. "The dispositon of loot," said a pirate. He thrust five, low, flat coffers of coins across the tiiles and put beside them a tangle of jewlery and a bowl of pearls. "And there is this too," said the man. He thrust forward a chained girl. Her ankles were joined by some two feet of graceful chain and her wrists,too, were linked by some two feet of chain. This type of chaining is not so much to confine a girl as it is to have her in chains and display her. This typoe of chaining is very beautiful. The primary bone on such a girl of course, is her slavery itself. On Gor what stronger bond need a girl wear?

She stood before Kliomenes graceful in the chains. "Is she pretty?" asked Kliomenes.

Her head was covered with semi-transparent scarled cloth, the central portion of such a cloth which had been cast over her, a large cloth, which fell to her calves. It was held on her by being tied under her chin and about her neck with a soft, braided scarlet cord. I could see the lineaments of her body beneath the semi-transparent cloth. She was left-thigh branded, the common Kajaria mark, that mark which can grace the thigh of any girl, from the most average of slaves to the prises in a Ubar's Pleasure Gardens.

And, indded, does that mark not tell us that they are all, in a sense, from the homeliest pot girl to the imbonded treasure of a Ubar, only common Kajirae?

The pirate hehind the girl, whohad thrust her forward, unknotted the cord from her throat, that which held the cloth over her head and kept it fixed, too, upon her body. She could probably see somewhat through the cloth, but not well. There seemed something familiar about her. The pirte drew the cloth away from the slave. He dropped it behind her. She knelt, I stepped back. It was she who had once been the Lady Florence of Vonda. I knew her now, of course, as Florence, who was, or had been, the slave of Miles of Vonda. To be sure, she was deliciously loot.

"You may do obeisance, my dear," said Kliomenes. The girl rose to her feet and went to Kliomenes. She knelt before him on the dias and put her head down. Gently, softly, she licked and kissed his feet. She then rose again to her feet, backed away, and then on the tiles again knelt. She put the palms of her hands on the tiles and lowered her head to the tiles. Then she straightened up, her back straight, assuming the position of the pleasure slave, thought keeping her head bowed deferentially.

"She is pretty," said Kliomenes. "Yes," said the pirate. "Girl," said Kliomenes. "Yes, Master," she said lifting her head. "How were you taken?" asked Kliomenes.

"By force, Master," she said. "My Master, Miles of Vonda, took ship from Victoria in the Flower of Siba," I knew the ship, Siba is one of the Vosk towns. It lies to the east of Sais."He was bound for Turmus. He took two slaves with him, myself, and a male slave, he named Krondar." Miles of Vonda in my opinion had been rash. I had suggested my reservations concerning traveling on the river in these troubled times to Florence, when I had spoken to her in the tavern of Tasdron. She would, doubtless, in turn had conveyed these reservations to Miles of Vonda. But it seems the proud Vondan had ignored them. Doubtless he had ignored the advice of others too in this matter. In the river towns the dangers of these times ere common knowledge. Little else, these days, it seemed, was spoken of in the taverns, in the markets, and on the wharves.

"We were attacked by two ships west of Tafa," she said. "One, as I understand it, was the galley Telia, captained by Sirnak, of this holding, he who has just presented me, and other loot before you. The other was the galleyTamira, captained by Reginald, he who is in the fee of Ragnar Voskjard."

"You were to escort the Tamira back to the vicinity of the chain," said Kliomenes, regarding the pirate who had presented the loot before him. "How is it that you dallied enroute to engage in more prosiac transactions?" It was gold lying on the sand, fruit ripe to be plucked," shrugged the pirate."The Tamira is carrying the signs and countersigns, as you know," said Kliomenes. "They are safe," the pirate assured him."

"What is the Tamira?" I asked the pirate next to me. "The scout ship of Ragnar Voskjard," said he. I had assumed this must be the case. I, myself, in my unsuccessful ruse, betrayed, presumeably by the Earth-girl slave, Peggy, had posed as a commander of scout ships, supposedly sent ahead by the fleet of Ragnar Voskjard. Now, it seemed, so soon, the actual ship or ships, although it now seemed there was only one, had appeared, conducted its business, and was not returning westward on the river, presumably to renderzvous with the Voskjard. That a single ship had been involved suggested a certain complacency on the part of the western pirates. Had they truly so little to fear?

"The chain has not yet been cut?" I asked. I gathered that it had not been cut from the nature of the conversation I had heart. On the other hand, it seemed puzling to me how the Voskjard's scout ship could have appeared in these waters if the chain had not been cut. "No," said the pirate next to me. "How could she have crossed the chain?" I asked.

"A single ship, posing as a merchantman, not inspected, it was not difficult," he said."The chain was opened for her?" I asked. "As it is for honest ships," said the man. He grinned.

"She experienced no difficulties?" I asked. "We have friends at the cahin," said the pirate. "I see," I said. "She will return as she came," he said.

"I see," I said. Inwardly, I was furious. How futile, how ineffective was the expedient of the chain!Kliomenes regarded the flat coffers of coins on the tiles before his dias, the jewelry, the bowl of pears, and the girl."Is this," he asked, "truly an equal division of the spoils of the Flower of Siba?" We have something of the better of it in my opinions," said the pirate before the dias. "I see," said Kliomenes. "Not much of great value is currently mvoing on the river," said the pirate. "Men are frightened. Most of the loos is being kept in the towns."

"Once joined with the Voskjar," said Kliomenes, "we can fetch it forth from the towns as it please us,"True, Captain," said the pirate.

Kliomenes smiles, addressed as Captain, though within the holding of Policrates. "Put the coins, the jewlery, and pearls in the general coffers," said Kliomenes. The pirate before the dias signaled to some men and they moved the coins, the jewelry and pears from before the dias."And what of this?" asked the pirate before the dias, taking the girl by the hair and forcing her head up and back, bending then her body back so as to reveal the bow of her enslaved beauty.

Kliomenes regarded the girl, musingly. "the value of many thing," he said, "seem patent, but not hte value of a slave." He gestured that the priate should release her, and he did so. The girl then knelt looking at him. "Are you only beautiful, my dear?" he asked.

She put down her head, sobbing. "Keep her in the holding," said Kliomenes. "I myself shall assess her tonight."The girl then in her chains was dragged sobbing from his presence.

Kliomenes then looked at me, and I was thrust forward, stumbling toward the dias. Unbidden, I knelt. There was laughter from the pirates in the room. I was the last items on his agenda for the morning. He had saved me for last.

"I should have slain you long agin, in the tavern of Tasdron in Victoria," said Kliomenes.

"Forgive me, Captain," I said, head down. "I understand that you are a braggart and a liar," said Kliomenes. "No, no, Captain," I said hastily.

"He maintains," said the pirate who had conducted me to the room, he normally in charge of the crews of the windlass, "that he deceived both you and Policrates, and us all, by posing as the courier of Ragnar Voskjard."Are you so desperate for status among your fellow sleen," asked Kliomenes, "that you will risk such lies in this place?"

I kept my head down. I seemed to tremble.

"You warned him, did you not?" inquired Kliomenes of my guard."Many time, Kliomenes," said the man, "But even this morning he persisted in these assertions, thinking I wa snot within that distance wherein I might detect his boasts. "I see," said Kliomenes.

"Too, yesterday," said the man, "he spoke disparaglingly of you." "What did he say?" inquired Kliomenes, amused."He spoke of you — as a dolt," said the pirate.

There was laughter from among the men present. Now, I noted, lifting my head, that Kliomenes did not seem amused. There was resentment of Kliomenes and jealously and fear, I suspected in the holding. There were perhaps others present who would not have minded usurping his lieutenancy to Policrates. Kliomenes looked about the room, and the laughter instantly faded. "That is indeed amusing," said Kliomenes, returning his attention to me.

"Forgive me, Captain," I begged. "Do not slay him, Kliomenes," said one of the men near the curule chair, "for he might be of use in bargaining for the freedom of the true courier of Ragnar Voskjard, who must have been captured by our enemies in Victoria."

"They would not exchange so valuable a man for this worthless fellow, a dock worker," said Kliomenes. "Wait for Policrates," said the man. "Let him make decision on this matter."

"In the absence of Policrates," said Kliomenes.

"I am first in the holding." "I do not contest that," said the man, stepping back angrily. Kliomenes again look at me. "Thus," said he, "if you are truly he who poses as the courier of the Voskjard, you, too, must be not unskilled with the sword." "Forgive me, Captain," I begged. "Put a sword in his hand," said Kliomenes.

The fellow near me, who had brought me to the room, withdrew his blade from its sheath. He held it to me, hilt first. "No," I said, "no!" "Take it," said Kliomenes, evenly.

I took the blade by the hilt, in one chained wrist. I took care to hold it improperly. I held it as thought it might have been a hammer, and too close to its guard, which would of cours, in actual swordplay, impari its mobility considerable.

Two of three of the men laughed. Kliomenes then rested back in his curule chain. He had been watching closely. He was a vain and arrogant man, but he was no fool. He had not won his way to the lieutenancy of Policrates by being stuipd.

"Can you not kill me as I am, inmy chains?" I asked. "Must you mock me?" Take him outside," said Kliomenes, rising and sstretching. "Please Captain, one favor," I begged, "One favor." "What?" asked Kliomenes, puzzled. "Do not let those of the windlass room know what was done to me," I begged.

"Bring them, in their chains, outside," said Kliomenes, to my guard, "that they may observe what is done to this fellow. "No, Captain, please!" I begged.But already two men were pulling me by the arms from the room.

I blinked against the light of the sun. I felt the chains on my wrists and ankles being removed. Armed men surrounded me. In one hand I still clutched, with apparently ineptness, and as though in fear, the sword which I had been commanedd to take from the pirate.

I looked about. I stood on a board walk, some twenty feet wide, which boarders the lakelike courtyard of the holding. We were within its high, formidable walls. Wharfed within the courtyard wereonly some five vessels, and smaller boats. To my right was a large door of dark iron leading into the recesses of the holding. Across the courtyard, some hundred yards or so of deep water, I could see the walkway at the foot of the outer wall and the stairs leading to the parapets. Too, I could see the great sea gates.

"You will soon see whta your braggadocio will gain you," said my guard whose sword I clutched.There was laughter about us.

I then heard the sounds of chains, moving in a slow cadence. My fellowes, now in close chains and ankle coffle, from the room of the windlass, were being brought out to observe what was to be done to me.

I put my head down as though shamed to be exposed as a liar before them. This way too, my smile that they were no longer in the room of the windlass and were heavily chained, could be concealed. It would be several Ehn, surely, before they could be returned to the room of the windlass and manage to raise the sea gate.

"Back away, Give us room," said Kliomenes, approaching. I shuddered and stepped back. He handed his sword to a fellow and pulled his tunic down to the waist. he then took his sword back, and with a slash or two in the fiar, tried its balance. I saw that his blade would move with great swiftness. i was also reassured that mine could move even more swiftly.

"Clear more space," said Kliomenes.

The men moved back around us clearing a broad circle. Tow of the men with Kliomenes, I noticed, had their own blades drawn. If perchance, he found himself in difficulties, I did not doubt but what they would soon interpose themselves on his behald. It would do me no good, of course, even if I could manage itto wound or slay Kliomenes within the confines of the present situation. My objective was not to deal with him, so to speak, but to extricate myself from the holding. My only chance in this rapid, dark matter, as I saw it, was to enlist his vanity and hopefully a recklessness attendant upon it, in my own cause.

"Are you ready, my stalwart simpleton, my handsome brraggart, to now make good your showy boasts?" inquired Kliomenes.

I looked to the fellows from the windlass. They stood there, locked in their chains, grim and sullen. A miserable looking crew I thought. Their despondency pleased me. In spite of my vainglorious carrying-on in the room of the windlass, which doubtless they must have found tiresome, it did not seem, even so, that they were looking forward eagerly to seeing me butchered before their very eyes. This pleased me. It also encouraged me to believe that they would find it difficult to make their way rapidly back to the room of the windlass. Hurried, they might even be expected to fall or to become entangled in their chains. Such things can happen.

The blade suddenly darted to ward me.I stumbled backward, off balance."Lucky parry," said one of the priates."There is no Callimachus to rescue you now, Dolt," said Kliomenes, measuring me, the point of his blade moving subtly a yard from the chest.Then again the blade struck, swift as an ost, toward me."The dock worker is fortunate," said one of the pirates.

But then I was afraid, for I realized that Kliomenes had intended that time to truly strike me. He had now backed away and was regarding me warily. One such parry might be fortunate, but that two such parries should follow one another, apparently so clumsy, and yet, both similarly effective, would surely appear to defy the probabilities involved in such matters.

"He is skilled," said Kliomenes. "He is clumsy!" laughed one of the men. There was more laughter. "Are you afraid, Kliomenes?" asked another.

Kliomenes glances to the two men nearest him, those with their swords drawn. At a word from him, of course, bothwould rush upon me and then perhaps others.I dropped my sword.Kliomenes tensed, but did not rush forward. "You could have killed him then," said a man.

I clumsily, picked up the sword, breathing heavily. I looked at Kliomenes as though frightened.

Kliomenes was regardin me, undecided. He knew that I could have retrieved the sword before he could have reached.

He did not know, however, for certain that I also knew that. "Have mercy, Captain," I said to him. "He is afraid," said one of the pirates.

I then realized that I must play a most dangerous game. It was not the others I must convince of my ineptitude with the blade, but Kliomenes himself. The others did not matter.

"Forgive me, Captain," I begged. I then knelt and put the sword on the walkway before me. Then I slid it, hilt first toward him.There were snorts of scorn from the pirates about. "Please, Captain," I begged, "let me be returned to the windlass."

Kliomenes smiled. "Coward," said more than one of the pirates to me. I knelt at the mercy of Kliomenes, defenseless. He could then have rushed upon me and slaughtered me like a tethered verr. "Please, Captain," I seemed to beg, "let me be returned to the windlass."Kliomenes looked about himself and smiled. Then he kicked the blade back to me. "Take up your sword," he said.

I reached for the blade and as I did so, he rushed upon me, and I met the blade, striking downwards, with a flash of steel and a shower of sparks. He was off balance and I reared upward, close to him, within his guard, seizing him and half turning him in the crook of my right arm, the blade in that hand. "Back away!" I cried to the pressing others. Kliomenes cried out with misery. My left hand was not in his hair, pulling his head back and the blade of my sword lay across his throat.

"Back away!" whispered Kliomenes, tensely, held. I turned, holding him, seeing that the others kept their distance. "Do not come closer," I warned the pirates, "or his throat is cut."

"I slipped," said Kliomenes. "I slipped." "Drop your sword," I told Kliomenes. he did so. "Release him," said one of the pirates. "You cannot escape."

"Put down your swords," I told them. "Put them on the walk."

They hesitated and Kliomenes felt the edge of the steel, set to slide n his throat."Put down your swords, Fool!" said Kliomenes. I saw the steel, blade by blade, sheathed and unsheathed, put to the stones of the walk. My steel ws then to the back of Kliomenes. "Precede me to the parapets," I told hi. "Do not follow," I warned the pirates.

"Surrenderyour sword," said Kliomenes. "Hurry," I told him."You have nothing with which to bargain," he said. "I have your life," I told him. He tenses. "Before you could run two steps," I told him, "I could have you half onmy sword or cut your head from your body." "Perhaps not," said Kliomenes, uneasily.

"It is a risk I am content to take," I informed him. "Are you?" He looked at me.

I opened my left hand at my hip. "If necessary," I said, "I am prepared to conduct you to the parapets, bend over, as a female slave."

"That will not be necessary," he said. He turned, then, and preceded me about the walkway bordering the lakelike courtyard. I looked back and saw the group of pirates. They did not follow. They stood near the iron door, the entry into the inner holding. Their steel lay still about their feet.

"Put aside your bow," I ordered one of th emen on the walls, climing towrd the parapets. In a few moments, walking along the parapets, we had come to the edge of the west gate tower, that which houses, in its lower level, the chamber of the windlass.Two or three of the men, their bows in hand, edged near us. "Put aside your bows," I told them. "Do as he says," said Kliomenes, angrily.

The bows were put to their feet. They were short, ship bows, stout and maneuverable, easy to use n croweded quartes, easy to fire across the bulwarks of galleys locked in combat. I had seen only such bows in the holding of Policrates. Their rate of fire, of course, is much superior to that of the crossbow, either of the drawn or windlass variety.

All things considered, the ship bow is an ideal missile weapon for close-range naval combat. it is superior in this respect even to the peasant bow, or long bow, which excells it in impact, range and accuracy.

I glanced over the edge of the wall. We were, as I had intended in the vicinity of the sea gate. I did not know how deep the water was there. Yet I knew I it must be deep enough to accommodate the keel of a captured, heavily laden round ship.

"What do you intend?" asked Kliomenes. "Tell them to fetch the rope," I said, gesturing to the men onthe wall. Kliomenes grinned, "Fetch rope," he said. They hurried down the stairs. "It seems you wil make good your escape," said Kliomenes. He assumed that I had had the men seriously sent for rope. He assumed that when they returned, I would use the rope to descend from the wall. By that time, of coures, the men would be again on the wall, doubtless some of them armed and with bows. Clambering down the rope, I would be vulnerable, and the rope too could be cut.

"Now, we are alone on the wall," I said to Kliomenes, leveling the sword at his belly. He backed away a step. "Do not kill me," he said suddenly, turing white. Behind him was the long drop to the walkway below.

I drew back my arm as though to ram the steel through his belly. He twisted away and fled. I laughed not pursuing him. I did not think he would stop until he was safely again among his men. Then, discarding the sword, I ascended the parapet and leaped feet first to the waters far below. It seemed I was a long time in the air. The rush of it was cold on my body and tore at my hair. I then struck the water, seeming to plummet through it, and struck with great force the mud and debris of the bottom. I sank into it to my knees. i feared my legs were broken. The water ws swirling about me, loud, roaring in my ears. I tore loose, kicking,of the mud, and pushed upward toward the surface which after some seconds, gasping I broke. I shook the water from my head; I blinked it from my eyes. I looked upward at the parapets far above. My legs were numb but I could control them. No arrows struck into the water about me. I gasped for breath, and then submerged, and swam underwater for the brush and trees, half sunken, which boarded the channel leading to the gate.

I emerged among roots and reeds. Only then, looking back from the cover of the half-submerged growth, did I see men first appear on the walls. They would not even know in which diretion I had set out. I then swam again underwater for a time until I emerged in the spongy terrain north and west of the holding, shielded from sight by trees from her walls. I assumed they would think I would have emerged north and east of the channel, for that lies closer to Victoria. I would at any rate have a good sart on any who might wish to give pursuit. It would take several Ehns, I was sure, to get the great sea gate raised. I had seen to that. I could always cross the channel northeastward at my convenience, under the cover of darkness, to move toward Victoria, or I might, if I chose, move simply to the southern shore of the Bosk. I was certain I could find a means from there to make my way back to Victoria. Small ships abound on the Vosk. I began then to move swiftly. I was cold. But I was in good spirits.